travel blog

Niche site and why I started a new blog

When I started blogging, it was impossible to imagine that it would become a full time gig for me. Now, not quite two years into blogging, I decided to add even more to that challenge. For the last little while, I’ve been working on another blog that is more of a niche site. Yes, you heard that right. Why have one blog when you can have two?

This post may contain compensated links. Find out more info in my DISCLAIMER.

I’ve been slowly letting it out there and felt it was time to let everyone know. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I am currently living in Italy. It’s a beautiful country with so much to see and do. As much as an interesting topic as that is, I didn’t want my blog to become just about Italy. Therefore, to solve that issue, Amongst Romans was born.

What is a niche site?

You might sit there and think, “What the heck is a niche site anyway?” Any way you look at it, niche is always about something very specific. Its goal is to provide helpful and quality content that answers and solves a specific question, problem or interest of the reader.

While I could easily add lots of Italy-based content to my existing blog, it just didn’t feel right. My blog is already specific in that it focuses on the historical angle, hence “travelling through the footsteps of history and blogging about it” bit. While that is also a niche of its own, it allows me to write about many destinations, no matter where they are. I also like to write about travel blogging itself, which my readers seem to enjoy.

That is mainly why I didn’t want to saturate my blog with Italian-based content. I’ll still write pieces about places here, it’s just not going to be all about Italy. There is a brand spanking new destination for that on the new blog.

Benefits of a niche site

The way I look at it, a niche site lets me experiment with different content that focuses on a specific location. I’ve decided to concentrate on five categories related to Italy – culinary, culture, art, history and the outdoors. The whole ideas is to create a go-to guide to Italy from an outsider’s perspective.

I’ve never been a culinary blogger as I think I’m more interested in eating food than writing about it. However, this new blog provides me with an ability to explore this area further. In the History of Italian Cuisine, I look at the history of Italian food. It was quite brilliant actually and I really enjoyed writing this particular piece. Is it different from my own blog? In many ways, absolutely.

Creating a niche site has also allowed me to channel my expertise and knowledge of this particular country. We’ve been here so many times, will always have a connection and a future here. Taking advantage of that fact seemed like a perfect idea.

Challenges of having two blogs

As much as I love my blog and writing, having two blogs is twice the challenge for many reasons. One of the most important things is deciding how to separate the content between the two blogs. We’ve been to a number of places worthy of writing about and I have tons of content, but where do I place it first?

Another challenge is timing. Publishing my blog on Tuesdays and Thursdays seemed to work quite well for Kasiawrites, but it doesn’t make sense to publish posts on both blogs on the same day. That would also means a lot more work for me with tighter deadlines. As I’ve literally just started this, I haven’t enough followers to worry about what time zones they are in, so I have a lot more flexibility. I will definitely try different days and see how things play out before fully committing to a day and time.

Identity is definitely another conundrum. I have always aligned my blog with me as it bares my name. It made sense and has worked out well. With Amongst Romans, I decided to add Alex to the mix, making it about our experience rather than my own views. The name itself is also general enough that we can expand it into other avenues if we need/want to, creating an independent brand. The world is our oyster, as they say.

Another beginning

When I started my blog, it was a hobby. I wrote posts without much thought about their structure, image size or SEO strength. It was an experiment full of trial and errors. Starting a new blog from scratch allows me to implement all I have learned from the start. After all, who doesn’t like a second chance?

One of the worst things I’ve done was not paying attention to the images. I uploaded very large ones that have slowed down my site and created a loading nightmare. Images are important, but if readers can’t load them, they become annoying and visitors are more likely to leave the site in frustration.

I’ve decided to focus more on SEO rather than social media promotion. Some of it made more sense anyway. I have a decent following on Twitter so instead of creating a new account; I’m going to capitalize on the existing one to promote the new one. Same goes for Facebook. However, I have decided to add a YouTube channel and create and Instagram account for the new blog to promote it. I’ll see how it goes and experiment as I go along.

Going forward

Year one of blogging was an experiment. The second one was also a huge learning curve. There were many things going on in our lives that made this a spectacular adventure. I am actually quite excited about running two blogs side by side and see how they stack up against each other. I wonder if that’s how parents feel about their subsequent children. The first one is always an experiment while the others build on lessons learned.

I’ve decided to focus more on collaborations on the new blog. Think there are many people out there with so much experience and knowledge about Italy that would add extra value to my blog. I am already working on some ideas and will definitely be trying them out soon. I’m giddy just thinking about it.

Bringing it together

So now, you know what I’ve been secretly working on while trying to keep this blog running. I must say, I do love a challenge and having two blogs is definitely going to keep me busy. There are so many people out there with multiple (yes, you heard that right) blogs that only shows you that sky is the limit.

Am I going to launch any additional blogs? At this point, I do have ideas running in my head, but I think two blogs will keep my busy for now. After all, I have so much content to fill both blogs. As anything else though, I am always open to new possibilities and you just never know what I could come up with next. There is still so much to do with the plans I already have for the two blogs. Stay tuned.

Are you interested more about time in Italy? Do you have questions about specific things you want to learn about? Feel free to check out the new blog and the social links and let me know what you think.

Kasiawrites Travel Blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

About the author:

Travelling in the footsteps of history and blogging about it. Forever Indiana Jones wanna be. Come along for the ride!

This sounds like a new interesting journey for you! I really commend you for all the time and effort you put into this blog, and running another one on top of that! Impressive. It sounds like you really enjoy blogging though, so I’m happy for you 🙂